A silhouette that should be Ozorotteron and Akari was teased. Official announcement will be during the stream on September 6th so I wonder if other characters will appear too. Probably everyone who appeared in that episode. I hope Shion and Mizuki are in.
Well, this was only a matter of time. I still haven’t watched past Aikatsu! s1, so while I’ve seen screenshots of this episode when it aired, I haven’t seen it myself yet. But seeing that episode always made me think they could use it in Cross Omega. Seeing all the more random things that managed to get in, Aikatsu was obvious as it’s a Bamco property too.
I’m really excited. Now I only hope they negotiate with Takara Tomy and actually bring in Pretty Series with Pretty Rhythm. Pretty Series and especially Pretty Rhythm getting into a console Super Robot Wars is one of my biggest dreams.It has much more mecha elements than Aikatsu, which only has them during these “let’s film a drama/movie “episodes. Many of the Prism Jumps are on par or greatly superior than mecha attacks too, and multiple actual mechas appear in Pretty Rhythm as well. If Aikatsu gets in Cross Omega, I really hope Pretty Rhythm will be next, and further down the line appear in a console SRW one day.
(This is more a joke post than anything, don’t expect me to keep up with the news, though I did edit in the pv)
Staff A, voiced by Shinichiro Miki: Boss! PriPara is murdering us and is everywhere!!
Staff B, voiced by Nakamura Yuichi: At this rate Aikatsu! will die off! What are we gonna do?!
Staff C, voiced by Sugita Tomokazu: Let’s just copy PriPara!
Staff D, voiced by Nakata Jouji: TAWAKE! We already copied Pretty Rhythm with Aikatsu, the same trick won’t work twice!
Staff E, voiced by Furuya Toru: True, a Saint level aidoru never falls for the same attack a second time…
Staff F, voiced by Hayami Show: You don’t need to be a Jenius to know this.
Staff G, voiced by Tsuda Kenjiro: I told you guys we should have stopped Aikatsu after s1 and made it into a little girls card game but you didn’t listen. By now we’d have stuff like BURU AIZU ICHIGO DORAGON!!!
Boss Staff, voiced by Takehito Koyasu: Everyone shut up!! So what if this puny PriPara rules the market now? I’ll tell you what we’re gonna do. Aikatsu worked and was more popular than this stupid rhythm prism show. Aikatsu is eternal!! Aikatsu is MUGEN NO KANOSEI!! Thus, for the new Aikatsu, we will COPY AIKATSU!!
All staff: NAAAANIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
LITERALLY NOTAOI, NOTICHIGO, NOTRAN AND NOTKII. THIS IS THE IDEA OF THE CENTURY.
Edit: They released a bid the 27th. pv starts at 9:30
They even recycled the seiyuus too. Tadokoro Azusa/Aoi is voicing Notkii. Morohoshi Sumire/Ichigo is voicing NotAoi. AND OHASHI AYAKA/RAN IS VOICING NOTRAN. They aren’t even trying to hide the recyclage for her. It’s like they have no shame.
I wonder if the seiyuus voices and singing voice will be the same for Aikatsu Stars. Not that I care anyway.
This is so hilarious. When I first saw this pic I genuinely though it was grown up Aoi Ichigo and Ran, and that they’re doing a timeskip. It was very low res pics so you couldn’t see the eye colors etc are different. And I guess I just thought Ichigo’s hair got lighter. But nope, they actually just recycled and mixed designs together. Blue hair horns got Seira’s ponytail and Aoi’s hair color, etc.
I wonder how this will turn out. I stopped watching Aikatsu! after s1 and I don’t think I’ll watch Aikatsu Stars! either. So I’m kind of indifferent to these news. I don’t decide whether to watch a series or not based on character design, but I guess if I had to comment, I’m not fond of this new chara design. It’s trying too hard to be cute, something I reproach to many things these days. It’s the same thing I don’t like about Melua’s new face for OGMD.
One of the things I liked about Aikatsu! is the character design. The characters don’t have ultra pale skin like stuff like Wake Up Girls, don’t have blush on every joints and cheeks like if they’re polishing their skin every morning like in Love Live, and they have noses. Even though I stopped watching Aikatsu, I slightly kept in touch with it, so I saw all the new characters are always super cute, like the Flamenco girl or Miyabi.
It’s a real shame they changed the chara design.
I’m not saying stuff like “Aikatsu is copying Pretty Rhythm again and doing stuff like adding a boys unit”, because while the pv says there’s a boys unit, we don’t know yet if they’ll be actual main characters like in Pretty Rhythm, or only appear every 10 episodes. Same with the S4 being potential rivals, we don’t know yet if there will be actual rivalry. And as this point, since they already copied Pretty Rhythm once anyway, you could just argue that instead of copying Pretty Rhythm, they’re just copying older shoujo shows like Pretty Rhythm did.
They did copy stuff from PriPara for the game. In Aikatsu Stars’ arcade game you’ll now be able to make your own character like in PriPara, and get customized cards.
I always wanted to do a collage of everything Aikatsu copied from Pretty Rhythm, to complete this “Aikatsu S1 Appeals copied from Prism Jumps” collage that someone once made:
Then, to make it fun and so little girls don’t get angry, I’d also add coincidences and things that actually haven’t been copied like this:
But I’ve always been reluctant of making some little girls angry and ruin their day. Maybe I’ll just put “this is a joke” on the collage. Or I should do a reverse psychology joke and say the collage is how Pretty Rhythm copied things from Aikatsu.
The show rated pretty higher than usual in the vicinity of Tokyo.(Aikatsu! too) It was the week when episode 39 aired. It’s the first time I see the show in this ranking. Must be cuz of the live xmas event. And since it was xmas more kids watched TV. I guess there’s also the fact that kids with strict Japanese parents who usually won’t let them watch stupid cartoons on TV exceptionally let them do so for xmas. Tons of families watched cartoons together for the occasion.
It probably dropped to the usual the week after.
I don’t really care about anime TV ratings myself, especially since it’s used in trolling, and in many stupid internet arguments over anime these days. But still felt like talking about it this once since it seems they’re unusually high.
Also it’s Kouji’s birthday. One of the biggest strength of Rainbow Live is the boys. I really like Kouji. Just like Hiro, he’s pretty different from the usual love interests in girls sports shows. While he can do Prism Shows, he doesn’t perform any (I’m pretty sure he will before the end though). He only does a backstage job of writing songs. While he’s slightly older than the girls, like Kazuki and Hiro, and gives them some advice from time to time, he isn’t their coach. These two points, about not performing, and about not teaching, makes him very different from the love interests of the classic sports shows I love, like Ace Wo Nerae! or Attacker You! (I wonder how many times I brought those two in a Pretty Rhythm related argument now. If you love Pretty Rhythm you should definitely check them out someday.)
Speaking of those, one of the things a typical girls sports show have that Rainbow Live lacks, is a DEMON COACH. A coach character who gives hellish training, but who’s actually nice in the inside, and does this only so his students can become the perfect athletes. Kei did the job perfectly in Aurora Dream, so it means they do know about the idea, but decided not to include the stereotype in Rainbow Live. I guess Norizuki Jin could be considered as one, except he’s genuinely evil. And instead of throwing balls at your face, he’ll only throw some rose petals and expel you from Edel Rose. There’s still one cour left though so maybe we’ll get to see one.
Now if we limit ourselves to Pretty Rhythm, I guess the character Kouji reminds me the most of is Shou. Shou used to design clothes for the girls. Kouji writes songs for the girls. Shou too had some serious issues in his romance with Aira, but in the end everything was their own faults. Sure, Yun Su complicated things in Dear My Future, but it stayed their problem and theirs only. In Rainbow Live, Ito and Kouji’s problems are their families problems. Their love is obstructed by things independent of them.
Mondaiji already ended last week. It was so short. Way too short. I know I keep saying that you shouldn’t judge shows without watching them first, but there’s one thing I always keep track of before a show starts: I believe the longer a show is, the stronger chances it’ll have to be good. You need time to make a good show, in order to develop the stories and characters. The shorter the series, the harder it is.
I’m always surprised to hear someone tell me they stopped watching Aikatsu simply because they learned that it’s 50 episodes and that they don’t have the courage to stick with it until the end, while I’m thoroughly delighted each time I remember this fact, thinking about all the fun I’ll be having. There’s very few 10~13 episode anime that are all time favorites of mine. It needs to be at least be 25~26 episodes. And even 26 episodes feels short to me at times.
As an example, Madoka Magica aired two years ago. I think it was a good show, but I certainly don’t like it as much as some people who would call it a masterpiece. There’s a good chance I would’ve liked it more if it was 26 episodes. Of course, OVAs and movies are a whole different story.
Seriously, by the time Aikatsu! ends, I think there will be actually less little girls wanting to become idols.
Everyone knows that scandals are also a perfect way to boost an idol popularity. She will be the subject of gossip thanks to it. The surprise in this week’s Aikatsu is that they actually said it: “A scandal… It’s the mark of an idol. Having one or two scandals exposed makes you a true idol!”. The realism in Aikatsu! is something else.
In other news, they improved the CG. It doesn’t look as bad as in the first episodes. The girls look less skinny, less out of place. It’s just better. It’s still not as good as Pretty Rhythm’s though.
I love Aikatsu! , yet I have a strong unwillingness to watch other idols shows. The currently airing ones I know about are Love Live and AKB0048. The main reason is that I’m not into idols, be it 2D or 3D. And yet I love Aikatsu, because it doesn’t have the kind of otaku pandering present in Love Live or AKB0048. That’s the simple difference that changes everything. Aikatsu is simply about girls who tries their best without any fanservice.
Maybe I’ll sound like a fanservice hater saying this but I am not one. In fact, I always find sad that some people judge books by their covers and won’t give something a chance simply because it has big boobs. It’s also sad that people dismiss Aikatsu! simply because it’s target audience is kids and that they use cards to wear their clothes. Target audience doesn’t mean anything. I just watch it and have fun. Aikatsu! is also really realistic for a kids show.
Episode 1 was mediocre, episode 2 was better, episode 3 & 4 were great. I was comparing it to Pretty Rhythm, but now, besides their background of both being adaptations of arcade games for little girls, Aikatsu! already detached itself from Pretty Rhythm. Pretty Rhythm is a Nekketsu sports show, Aikatsu! is a realistic idol show. Pretty Rhythm is Virtua Tennis, Aikatsu! is Top Spin ( I played Top Spin 4 at a friend’s place this weekend).
The plot is similar: the reveal in episode 2 about how the school’s director in Aikatsu! is a previous top idol, who used to be part of a duo until her partner mysteriously vanished, immediately made me think about Kyouko in Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream, the manager of the girls, who used to be a top idol, until her rival mysteriously disappeared. Seems like Aikatsu’s plot in the end will revolve around this just like Pretty Rhythm. I’ve even willing to bet the 3rd heroine who has yet to join Ichigo and Aoi will be the daughter of either the director or the vanished idol.
However, when you stop looking at the plot, then the similarities end. When I watched episode 3 of Aikatsu! I really felt like I was watching a documentary about an idol’s daily work routine in Japan. It was really amazing in a sense.
Aikatsu!, is a contraction of “Idol Katsudou” or idol activities.
Aikatsu! is an anime adapted from an arcade game by Bandai. One of sunrise’s animation studio is doing it. The game is aimed towards little girls and is about making your character the best idol there is, using collectibles cards representing clothes to customize her. The game is quite recent; it was launched this October, right before the anime’s start. I was really interested when hearing about it as it reminded me of Pretty Rhythm. I’m pretty sure Bandai is trying to rival Takara Tomy with their own idol arcade game and ride on Pretty Rhythm’s success.
About the anime, it’s typically the kind of show most people will call crap without even watching it. Now doesn’t this remind you of anything? The comparisons with Pretty Rhythm doesn’t stop here as the first episode is pretty much a copy paste of Pretty Rhythm’s initial plot. We have our heroine called Ichigo who is helping her parents run a bento store. In Pretty Rhythm, Aira helps her parents with their bakery. The basic plot is the same. The clueless heroine who becomes an idol and has some hidden talent. Both shows also uses CG for the dance scenes. The CGs scenes in Pretty Rhythm are rather well done and fits in (then again I’m a huge fan of it so my judgement is biased) while I have to admit the ones in Aikatsu! just look weird. Unlike Pretty Rhythm, the choreography isn’t interesting, and the girls’ CG rendition is too different from how she looks outside CG scenes. They become way too skinny, among other things.
I’ll probably keep watching Aikatsu! because I want to know how it will turn out. I consider Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream the best show I’ve seen in 2011 & 2012, not only because it exceeded my expectations, but also because it was genuinely awesome. I mean, I don’t only like it because it was better than what I imagined, the show IS great. It would be great if Aikatsu! manages to transcend being an anime directed toward little girls and incorporates great and touching story elements like Rizumu’s issues with her mom in Pretty Rhythm.
Nekketsu Nikki 